The present invention relates to a medicine feed apparatus for automatically feeding peculiar medicines such as separately packed medicines, five-connected plastic ampoules, PTP-packed medicine and so on.
Conventionally, there has been known a medicine feed apparatus in which plural sets of five-connected plastic ampoules are supported in a stacked condition in a storage container and cut and discharged one by one by means of a conveyor belt positioned at lowermost portion and a rotor (refer to Japanese Patent Laid-open publications No. H8-243146, H8-244889 and so on).
However, in the above mentioned medicine feed apparatus, the ampoules that are cut and discharged but never dosed cannot be stored and fed again. It is a present situation that about 20% of the ampoules fed by the apparatus are recovered without being dosed. Therefore, it has been desired to provide a construction that can feed such recovered medicines again.
Recently, there has been sold separately packed or unit-packed medicines because of the labor savings of a medicine dispensing work. Thus, it has been also desired to provide a construction that can deal with such a kind of packed medicines.
The present invention has been developed to substantially eliminate the above-described disadvantages.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a medicine feed apparatus having a construction that can feed any packed-types of medicines.
In order to attain the aforementioned objects, there is provided a medicine feed apparatus comprising a plurality of storage containers for storing medicines which are stacked in a vertical direction, the necessary quantity of medicines being discharged one by one in accordance with prescription data in order from the lowermost medicine. The apparatus comprises:
a support member positioned at a lower part of the storage container, the support member supporting the second medicine placed on the lowermost medicine so that the lowermost medicine falls off by its own weight;
a discharge member for discharging the medicine which fell from the support member; and
a collecting mechanism for conveying the medicines discharged from the discharge member to one position.
According to the aforementioned construction of the present invention, driving the discharge member allows the necessary number of medicines to be discharged from the lowermost point to the collecting mechanism and collected to one position.
Preferably, the discharge member may comprise a chute which can be tilted with the medicine put thereon so that the medicine will slide toward the collecting mechanism.
Alternatively, the discharge member may also comprise a conveyor which can be driven with the medicine thereon so that the medicine is conveyed toward the collecting mechanism.
The storage containers may be disposed at different positions in a vertical direction and the collecting mechanism can be ascended and descended to collect the medicines from each of the storage containers. This enables the storage containers to be highly integrated.
The apparatus may further comprises a detector for detecting the medicine discharged from the storage container, whereby the collecting mechanism is driven based on a detection signal of the detector to move the medicine on the collecting mechanism so that the medicine on the collecting mechanism does not obstruct the medicine discharged from the storage container. This enables the medicines to be smoothly discharged from the storage containers.
The present invention also provides a medicine feed apparatus comprising a plurality of storage containers for storing medicines which are stacked in a vertical direction. The necessary quantity of medicines are discharged one by one in accordance with a prescription data in order from the lowermost medicine. The apparatus comprises:
a support member positioned at the lower part of the storage container, the support member being movable between a discharge preparation position where the support member positions the medicine at the lowermost point of the storage container and a discharge position where the lowermost medicine is laterally moved and the support member positions the second medicine at one-stage higher than the lowermost point; and
a discharge member for discharging the medicine when the support member is moved to the discharge position along with the medicine.
According to the aforementioned construction of the present invention, reciprocating movement of the support member allows the lowermost medicine to be moved to the discharge position and causes the next medicine to be supported by the support member. Driving the discharge member enables the medicine, which has been moved to the discharge position to be discharged.
Preferably, the apparatus may further comprise:
a detector for detecting the medicine discharged by the discharge member; and
a notification unit for notifying a user of a shortage of medicine when the detector does not detect the medicine for a predetermined time after driving the support member and the discharge member.
At the initial operation of the support member and the discharge member, the discharge member may be reversed for a predetermined time so that the medicine which remains on the discharge member is stopped at a predetermined position. This surely prevents the medicine remaining on the discharge member from being discharged.